April 21, 2026
Judge Casper blocks Trump from requiring Burgum to personally approve all wind and solar permits
Boston judge says Burgum can't personally veto every wind and solar permit
⚡Energy🌱Environment👨⚖️Judicial Review📋Public Policy
Chief US District Judge Denise Casper of the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction on April 21, 2026, blocking the Interior Department from enforcing a set of policies that had effectively halted wind and solar energy development on federal lands and waters. Casper found that nine clean energy industry groups — including the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, Clean Grid Alliance, RENEW Northeast, and Southern Renewable Energy Association — were likely to succeed in showing the department adopted unlawful policies without going through required regulatory process.
The injunction blocked three specific policies: a July 2025 memorandum requiring three senior political appointees, including Secretary Burgum personally, to approve nearly every step in wind and solar permitting; a policy classifying wind and solar projects as "capacity dense" (a designation that would subject them to more restrictive permitting standards); and a reinterpretation of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act imposing stricter requirements for offshore wind projects.
Interior Secretary 
Doug Burgum's personal approval requirement was the most sweeping of the blocked policies. Under the memorandum, virtually every stage of the permitting process for wind and solar projects on federal lands — from initial environmental review to lease approval to construction authorization — required sign-off from Burgum and two other senior political appointees. The plaintiffs showed that this requirement had already caused developers to cancel or indefinitely delay multiple projects nationwide.
Casper ruled that the department hadn't explained or justified the three-tiered political review process and that none of the directives the department cited provided adequate legal authority for the policy. The APA requires that agency actions be supported by reasoned explanation in the administrative record — a standard Casper found the Interior Department failed to meet.
The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 requires federal agencies to follow notice-and-comment rulemaking when they want to create legally binding requirements. Agencies must publish proposed rules in the Federal Register, accept public comments for at least 30 days, address those comments, and then issue a final rule. If agencies want to impose mandatory requirements, they generally can't do so through internal memoranda that bypass this process.
The Trump administration adopted a strategy of using informal memoranda and policy directives — rather than formal rulemaking — to impose new requirements on energy permitting. Casper's ruling signaled that this strategy has legal limits: when an informal memorandum has the practical effect of a legally binding rule, courts can treat it as one and apply APA standards.
Federal lands and waters under Interior Department jurisdiction cover about 12 percent of US energy production, including large tracts of the western US and the Outer Continental Shelf off both coasts. Wind and solar energy development on these lands had been increasing significantly before the Trump administration's permitting policies effectively froze new projects.
The clean energy industry argued that the bottleneck wasn't just slowing renewable development but was also undermining signed lease agreements and investment commitments. Developers who had purchased federal leases for wind and solar projects couldn't get permits processed, creating legal uncertainty that triggered contract defaults and investor withdrawals from projects worth billions of dollars.
The ruling is a setback for the administration's broader energy strategy, which invoked the Defense Production Act to boost oil, coal, and natural gas production while creating permitting obstacles for wind and solar. Interior Secretary Burgum had been a central figure in implementing this strategy, and the personal approval requirement reflected a deliberate attempt to use political gatekeeping to slow renewable energy development.
The government is expected to appeal Casper's ruling to the First Circuit. A preliminary injunction doesn't decide the merits of the case finally — the underlying lawsuit will continue. But the injunction restores the previous permitting process for wind and solar projects while the litigation proceeds, giving the clean energy industry a significant near-term win.
⚡Energy🌱Environment👨⚖️Judicial Review📋Public Policy
People, bills, and sources
Denise Casper
Chief US District Judge, District of Massachusetts
Doug Burgum
US Secretary of the Interior
What you can do
1
civic action
Contact your representative about energy permitting policy on federal lands
Congress has authority to set permitting timelines and requirements for energy development on federal lands through legislation. You can contact your House representative to ask their position on whether political appointees should have personal veto power over energy permits.
My name is [name] and I'm a constituent calling about energy permitting on federal lands. A federal court just blocked Interior Department policies that required Secretary Burgum to personally approve every wind and solar energy permit. These policies had already caused developers to cancel or delay projects. What is the representative's position on whether a single political appointee should have personal veto power over federal energy permits? Should Congress pass legislation to establish clear permitting timelines?
2
civic education
Follow the clean energy permitting case through the courts
The Interior Department is expected to appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. The underlying case will continue even with the preliminary injunction in place. You can track the case at CourtListener for filings and updates.
3
civic education
Submit a comment if the Interior Department pursues formal rulemaking on energy permitting
If the Interior Department loses its appeal and must pursue formal rulemaking under the APA, it will be required to open a public comment period. You can submit comments through Regulations.gov to weigh in on any proposed permitting rules for federal lands.
I am writing to submit a comment on [rulemaking docket number] regarding Interior Department permitting requirements for wind and solar energy on federal lands. I believe [specific policy position] because [specific reasons]. I urge the Department to [specific request, e.g., maintain clear timelines, remove political veto requirements, etc.].